Week 14 in Chile

Hit the 3 months in Chile mark this past week! It's crazy how fast time has flown by. I hope you enjoy this week's entry!

Monday, September 2, 2013

-Rested all morning and worked on my paper and hung out at home with Nora until I had class at 4:30 at the program office; after class a few of us headed to the Lastarria neighborhood to find a quaint cafe to grab some coffee and tea and do some homework; we ended up staying until closing and enjoying several cups of coffee and each other's company; After I headed home to continue work on my paper and go to sleep

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

-Class all day at San Joaquin per every Tuesday; went to a meeting at lunch about work study type jobs on campus, specifically about being an English tutor a few days a week for Chileans who want to practice and need to take an English placement exam; I'll be getting more information about it in the upcoming weeks, but I'm excited to get involved on campus! After my second class, I headed to a cafe on campus to grab some coffee and study for a test that I have tomorrow; Later I met up with some friends and we headed to another cafe in Lastarria to study again; and then I went home for the night, but on the way home, I saw another protest happening, but this one was a bike protest! Hundreds of people from Greenpeace were biking down the Alameda at 10pm! Crazy! Some were even dressed up as polar bears; as I said before, September is a very politically active month in Chile

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

-I had my first test in Chile this morning; I think it went really well and I knew how to explain what I wanted to say on all of the questions, so proof that my Spanish has improved; after my friends and I finished our test we headed to Plaza Nunoa because I needed to buy a knee brace for my soccer games, then we decided to stay in the area for lunch and went to this great Mexican restaurant in the Plaza called Taxco where I had some great enchiladas that I had definitely been craving; afterwards I came home to learn that my second class of the day was cancelled, giving me ample time to nap! Later I met up with friends at La Piojera and we headed to Miercoles po or "noche de gringos" as my host mom calls it

Thursday, September 5, 2013

-Major protests, didn't go to morning class cause I live in the heart of the protests and the metro was shut down so I had no way to get there; headed to my afternoon class, but the teacher wasn't there so the students that did show up watched a movie with the TA for half of the class and then she let us leave to go home; Had dinner at home and then went out to meet some Tufts friends at a bar in Plaza Nunoa; it was good to see some from familiar faces from back at school

Friday, September 6, 2013

-Slept in late and watched some TV and then some of my friends came over and we all hung out; mostly a very chill day in Santiago; later in the evening, I headed to a friend's boyfriend's house for a BBQ and to watch Chile beat Venezuela, which they did! Super fun night meeting new Chilean friends and hanging out with people from the program

Saturday, September 7, 2013

-Woke up early to meet the program group in Puente Alto for an all day folk dance workshop and BBQ with new Chilean friends; really fun and funny day; during a mid afternoon break we played tug-of-war with the Americans versus the Chileans and other such a combinations; there were USA-USA chants and Chi-chi-chi le-le-le chants from the opposition and all the neighbors came out to watch the gringos take on the Chileans; we won most of the events which was funny and fun and awesome; over all great day! On top of that we learned the cueca and some dances from Rapa Nui and had an awesome BBQ that our program director cooked up for us
-After that, I headed home to get ready for my second soccer game which we won this time!! 5-1!! Afterwards, some of us headed out to get some Indian food for dinner (yay spicy food!) and then we met up with some people from the program and headed to a club for a while, but we were all tired from the game so we called it a night early

Sunday, September 8, 2013

-Finally met Nora's family today which was awesome! She took me over to her son Rodrigo's house for an all day BBQ with the whole family; it was great to meet everyone and see her kids and her grandkid; at first it was a little awkward and overwhelming but I got into the swing of conversations and keeping pace and ended up having an awesome time with her family; Hopefully I will get to see them all again sometime

That's all for now! Check back next week for more updates! Also, the clocks moved forward an hour here, so I am now 1 hour ahead of EST.

Besos,
Lesley